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Taliban militants blow up one of the oldest shrines of Ghazni city
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Page 6: Politix
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6 15:59 Slomoper Tholing7084 [2] 
1 00:39 Seeking Cure For Ignorance [] 
6 11:44 JohnQC [] 
1 01:57 Cheger Peacock6239 [1] 
2 09:59 lord garth [] 
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-Lurid Crime Tales-
Here We Go – FBI Admits Using Spies Against Trump Campaign…
Posted as a comment yesterday by our friend and fellow poster who has trekked the old stone bridge at Betws-y-Coed.
[Last Refuge] A report in the New York Times, transparently timed and placed by officials within the intelligence apparatus trying to get out ahead of internal investigations, outlines how the FBI sent counterintelligence spies to engage with Trump campaign officials in 2016.

In a stunning admission The New York Times describes how the FBI enlisted a female agent to work the "operation" in the U.K. during August-September 2016 posing as an aide for U.S. intelligence asset/FBI informant Stefan Halper.
NYT [...] The woman had set up the meeting to discuss foreign policy issues. But she was actually a government investigator posing as a research assistant, according to people familiar with the operation. The F.B.I. sent her to London as part of the counterintelligence inquiry opened that summer to better understand the Trump campaign’s links to Russia.

The American government’s affiliation with the woman, who said her name was Azra Turk, is one previously unreported detail of an operation that has become a political flash point in the face of accusations by President Trump and his allies that American law enforcement and intelligence officials spied on his campaign to undermine his electoral chances. Last year, he called it "Spygate."

Ms. Turk went to London to help oversee the politically sensitive operation, working alongside a longtime informant, the Cambridge professor Stefan A. Halper. The move was a sign that the bureau wanted in place a trained investigator for a layer of oversight, as well as someone who could gather information for or serve as a credible witness in any potential prosecution that emerged from the case.

A spokesman for the F.B.I. declined to comment, as did a lawyer for Mr. Halper, Robert D. Luskin. Last year, Bill Priestap, then the bureau’s top counterintelligence agent who was deeply involved in the Russia inquiry, told Congress during a closed-door hearing that there was no F.B.I. conspiracy against Mr. Trump or his campaign.
Obviously the group (CIA, DOJ and FBI) who constructed the political surveillance and spy operations are trying to present their side of the story, prior to investigation by AG Bill Barr and the soon-to-be-released IG report.

Halper was an FBI operative and Cambridge professor who set up meetings with Trump campaign advisor George Papadopoulos. The female agent used a fake name, Azra Turk, and presented herself as an assistant to Stefan Halper; however, she was actually an undercover intelligence operative of the FBI.
Posted by: Besoeker || 05/03/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  In a stunning admission The New York Times describes....

"Stunning admission" sometimes referred to as damage control.
Posted by: Besoeker || 05/03/2019 3:01 Comments || Top||

#2  And how long has NY Times sat on this information?
Posted by: Airandee || 05/03/2019 6:19 Comments || Top||

#3  I suspect many of them may be having "oh crap" moments that they might wind up the focus of an investigation.
Posted by: Silentbrick || 05/03/2019 6:58 Comments || Top||

#4  Hopefully if they are they'll get an armed raid at 5am and a Fox news TV crew there to film it.
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 05/03/2019 8:48 Comments || Top||

#5  Haven't seen any pictures but I heard somewhere that she's supposed to be attractive. Now, the FBI wouldn't resort to a honey pot would they?
Posted by: Abu Uluque || 05/03/2019 11:24 Comments || Top||


-Signs, Portents, and the Weather-
Facebook bans Louis Farrakhan, others in hate crackdown
[DAWN] Facebook on Thursday banned black activist leader Louis Farrakhan, far-right icon Alex Jones and several others from its main service and from Instagram in a heightened crackdown on hate content at the leading social network.

"We've always banned individuals or organizations that promote or engage in violence and hate, regardless of ideology," Facebook said in a statement.

"The process for evaluating potential violators is extensive and it is what led us to our decision to remove these accounts today."

The company said on Thursday that it has also banned extreme right-wing figures Paul Nehlen, Milo Yiannopoulos, Paul Joseph Watson, Laura Loomer and the conservative conspiracy site Infowars. Jones was already banned from Facebook but not from Instagram.

Posted by: Fred || 05/03/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Farrakhan's just the polish on the attempt to deplatform right of center figures.

And the GOPe will play right along.

Posted by: charger || 05/03/2019 9:14 Comments || Top||


-Land of the Free
Lindsey Graham will ask Chief Justice John Roberts to investigate FISA court misconduct
[WashingtonExaminer] Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., says he will ask Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts to investigate possible abuse of the U.S. Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court during the 2016 election.

Noting that President Trump is "down" on the FISA court, Graham, who is chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, told reporters on Thursday he will make a call to ask, "‘Would you please look and see what happened?’ because I don’t want to lose the FISA program."

As the chief justice, Roberts has the power to appoint judges to the FISA court.

Related: FISA court 2016 PDF.
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 05/03/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Fox appointed to guard chicken coop.

Posted by: charger || 05/03/2019 9:15 Comments || Top||

#2  Prefer Alito or Thomas. Roberts is too wobbly.
Posted by: Injun Bucket8891 || 05/03/2019 12:06 Comments || Top||

#3  Roberts?
Posted by: Woodrow || 05/03/2019 18:28 Comments || Top||


FBI Used 'Honeypot' Spy To Tag-Team Papadopoulos In London Russiagate Setup: NYT
[ZeroHedge] A mysterious Turkish woman who "assisted" FBI spy Stefan Halper in a London operation targeting Trump campaign aide George Papadopoulos has been revealed as yet another FBI operative sent to spy on the Trump campaign during the 2016 US election, according to the New York Times.

The woman, who went by the name Azra Turk, repeatedly flirted with Papadopoulos during their encounters as well as in email exchanges according to an October, 2018 Daily Caller report, confirmed today by the Times. "Turk," posed as Halper's assistant according to the report.
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 05/03/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  And Papadopoulos reported this suspicious contact to the US Embassy immediately of course.

George Papadopoulos
@GeorgePapa19
I agree with everything in this superb article except “Azra Turk” clearly was not FBI. She was CIA and affiliated with Turkish intel. She could hardly speak English and was tasked to meet me about my work in the energy sector offshore Israel/Cyprus which Turkey was competing with

Mark Mazzetti
@MarkMazzettiNYT
NEW: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/02/us/politics/fbi-government-investigator-trump.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share …
Posted by: Besoeker || 05/03/2019 2:58 Comments || Top||

#2  Where are the pics of the honeypot, fellas? I am disappoint...
Posted by: Raj || 05/03/2019 6:25 Comments || Top||

#3  Oh wait! Wrong honeypot.
Posted by: Besoeker || 05/03/2019 8:15 Comments || Top||

#4  Close enough, but Papadopoulos described his honeypot as having 'cartoonishly voluptuous' breasts.

I gots to know!
Posted by: Raj || 05/03/2019 8:49 Comments || Top||

#5  Caught a quick glimpse last night on Fox. Cartoonish - I'm not so sure. Large? Absolutely
Posted by: Rex Mundi || 05/03/2019 10:14 Comments || Top||

#6  Guess I should have scrolled a little further before I comment on the first post on this, ahem, subject.
Posted by: Abu Uluque || 05/03/2019 11:27 Comments || Top||


Trump's Fed Reserve Board pick pulls back nomination after handful of Republicans join Romney in ‘concern'
[BizPacReview] Criticism from the Senate’s seemingly less conservative Republican legislators appears to have played a role in killing the nomination of would-be Federal Reserve Board member Stephen Moore.

Only days after a handful of Senate Republicans, including Sen. Mitt Romney, expressed concerns about Moore’s credentials and alleged partisanship, the renowned economist withdrew his nomination.
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 05/03/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Are you deaf, Romrey? Yes Romrey.
Prease Go Aray?

Go the fuck away. Do not get in the way of This Business.
Amateur piking waffle headed swivel stick on a dashboard.

Your input was lost when you lost This Nation to Obama. You are not to school Trump.

Posted by: newc || 05/03/2019 1:00 Comments || Top||

#2  It should be noted thqt 1/3rd of senators will be up for election in 2020, so the NeverTrumperw among them should be under threat of replacement — changing the calculus of such things. That the Democrats among them will also be under threat of replacement, and following the trend of the last few years that means by Republicans, just adds the frosting of amusement — or schadenfreude, depending on one’s bent — to the thing.
Posted by: trailing wife || 05/03/2019 1:25 Comments || Top||

#3  ...Brutus Romney is an honorable man.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 05/03/2019 7:04 Comments || Top||

#4  Sorry P2k you are incorrect.

Brutus was far more honorable than Mittens.
Posted by: AlanC || 05/03/2019 8:20 Comments || Top||

#5  TW, unfortunately Trump seems to have a history of doing the exact opposite.

He endorsed McCain, Romney and Luther Strange.
Posted by: charger || 05/03/2019 9:16 Comments || Top||

#6  He endorsed McCain, Romney and Luther Strange.

Senator McCain was unbeatable in his state, charger, while Mitt Romney is a power in the Republican party — both of whom would not lose in the primary to a Trump supporter, but who might have been brought round with a bit of judicious politicking. I don’t know anything about Mr, Strange.
Posted by: trailing wife || 05/03/2019 11:19 Comments || Top||


Baltimore mayor quits over children's books corruption scandal
[WashngtonExaminer] Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh will resign later on Thursday, according to a new report.
Ballymore's own Jar Jar Binks
The Baltimore Afro-American Newspaper reported Thursday that Pugh told its publisher she plans to step down from her post Thursday, effective immediately. Pugh’s attorney Steve Silverman told CBS Baltimore that a press conference will be held at his office Thursday, but didn’t disclose why the press conference was being held.

Pugh, who has been on paid medical leave for approximately a month due to pneumonia, has faced pressure to step down from her post amid an investigation into the sales of her children's book, Healthy Holly.
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 05/03/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  "Afro-American"? Is that the new "N" word?
Posted by: Seeking Cure For Ignorance || 05/03/2019 0:39 Comments || Top||


Britain
Russian Oligarch's wife paid £135,000 for dinner with Theresa May and SIX female cabinet ministers
[Daily Mail, where America gets its news]
  • The wife of a Russian Oligarch and Putin ally, Lubov Chernukhin, joined Prime Minister and Cabinet ministers for dinner

  • Mrs Chernukhin paid £135,000 for the opportunity at a Tory-fundraiser

  • They were pictured at a Tory event in the Goring Hotel in upmarket Belgravia

  • Liz Truss posted the photo on Instagram to her 6,700 followers

  • The hotel has a Michelin-starred restaurant and rooms cost up to £2,000 a night
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 05/03/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Nothing to see here, move along, move along.
Posted by: Cheger Peacock6239 || 05/03/2019 1:57 Comments || Top||


Former Labour MP Fiona Onasanya becomes first politician to be KICKED OUT of Parliament by voters after almost 20,000 signed petition
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 05/03/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Talk about burying the lede - what, exactly, did this woman lie about to the police? The only thing I can discern from the article is that she was doing 41 MPH in a 30 MPH zone and at some point later she lied about... something. Did she tell the bobby 'No, I wasn't speeding' or something to that effect (like I've done nearly every time I got a speeding ticket)? If that's the case, it's clear that some things in Britain are way over-criminalized.
Posted by: Raj || 05/03/2019 6:39 Comments || Top||

#2  she was obnoxious about this from the time of the incident in 2017 until just recently

at one time she compared herself to Moses and Jesus

also she is a big time 'remainder'
Posted by: lord garth || 05/03/2019 9:59 Comments || Top||


Europe
EU vows 'measures' against full US implementation of Helms-Burton Act on Cuba: official
[Twitter AFP]
Sigh.. yet another reason to RUN not WALK away from NATO


Posted by: 3dc || 05/03/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under: Tin Hat Dictators, Presidents for Life,

#1  The US has measures it can take against the officials who take these measures.
Posted by: Daniel || 05/03/2019 3:19 Comments || Top||

#2  ...It will, of course, be a measured response.

Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski || 05/03/2019 4:33 Comments || Top||

#3  NATO should have ended when the Warsaw Pact dissolved. The USA should have demobilized after the Soviet Union collapsed also. But Eisenhower's prophecy about the military industrial complex proved to be accurate.

Europeans offer nearly nothing meaningful to the American alliance. So, ask yourself, what is it about your country that merits US attention?
Posted by: Herb McCoy || 05/03/2019 4:35 Comments || Top||

#4  So the EU wants to protect Cuba. Makes some sense to me - communists need to help each other out, or is there something else afoot?
Posted by: Raj || 05/03/2019 6:28 Comments || Top||

#5  EU responding to a special request from Putin. Move along please, nothing more to be seen here.
Posted by: Besoeker || 05/03/2019 8:21 Comments || Top||

#6  Where else are they gonna diddle children for 5 Euros a throw and then go for rum drinks?
Posted by: Slomoper Tholing7084 || 05/03/2019 15:59 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Politix
Book Sez Obama Butthurt Over 2016 Election
[UK Daily Mail, since no US media will cover this, ever] - Barack Obama admitted 'this stings' after the 2016 election result and spent the night watching the movie Dr Strange to try and distract himself, a new book claims.

The former president went from being confident that Hillary Clinton would beat Donald Trump to seeing it as a 'personal insult' that she lost.
Well, then. He took it exactly as I meant it
Obama could not believe the American people had 'turned on him' for a man he had written off as a 'cartoon'.

As the dust settled Obama told his family that 'this hurts' and blamed Clinton who 'brought many of her troubles on herself' and ran a 'scripted, soulless campaign'.

The eye-popping details are in the new edition of 'Obama: The Call Of History' by New York Times chief White House correspondent Peter Baker.
Posted by: Raj || 05/03/2019 06:54 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Butthurt? Call me when "butthurt" transitions to manic depression, binge drinking and opioid abuse.
Posted by: Besoeker || 05/03/2019 8:05 Comments || Top||

#2  "the people failed him"....

Shows just how wrong the people were to put up with his regime for 8 years.
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 05/03/2019 8:45 Comments || Top||

#3  Obama butthurt, OPEC whinging about the oil weapon - it's a Great Day in America.
Posted by: SteveS || 05/03/2019 8:50 Comments || Top||

#4  From what I've heard, he rather enjoys being butthurt.
Posted by: charger || 05/03/2019 9:11 Comments || Top||

#5  Someone quickly please. Number 4, definite Snark of The Day.
Posted by: Besoeker || 05/03/2019 9:16 Comments || Top||

#6  As far as I can tell, he's never NOT butthurt. Have we ever had a 'president' who whined so much?
Posted by: Silentbrick || 05/03/2019 9:19 Comments || Top||

#7  does this book come with a hole in the corner? needs one so it can be hung in the outhouse so it can be used in the only logical manner
Posted by: USN, Ret. || 05/03/2019 10:53 Comments || Top||

#8  Thought those executive orders and bypassing the congress that he controlled was so clever at the time, he didn't even imagine the other party (or more likely a third party) would take power and could remove everything almost as easily.
Posted by: rjschwarz || 05/03/2019 13:46 Comments || Top||

#9  When you lead from behind, you're likely to get trampled as the herd switches direction when it gets spooked.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 05/03/2019 14:50 Comments || Top||

#10  I'm only happy I could help.
Posted by: Slomoper Tholing7084 || 05/03/2019 15:28 Comments || Top||

#11  Bath House Barry Scroterum whines like the panty waist he is...
Posted by: M. Murcek || 05/03/2019 17:30 Comments || Top||

#12  FOX News did
Posted by: Bobby || 05/03/2019 17:52 Comments || Top||


Lazy Mazie Morphs into Crazy Mazie
[AmericanThinker] Hey Mazie Hirono! Who do you work for? Who is pulling your strings? Surely, it's not the people of Hawaii or the rest of the country.

Your father left the family when you were very young, and your mom managed to bring you and your two siblings to Hawaii. She supported the family by working long hours to put a roof over your head and food on the table. In spite, of your meager surroundings, you managed to get yourself a fine education at the University of Hawaii and prestigious Georgetown Law School.

One would expect gratitude for the opportunity this country offered you, but instead you shamefully and ungratefully had the gall to state to your staff that "people are getting screwed in this country every single second, minute, hour of the day." So, the country that took you in, housed you, fed you, clothed you, and educated you is a country that "screws" everyone every second of every day? Doesn't look like you were screwed, but it does look like you are the one who is screwing the good people of this country.

Wednesday, instead of questioning Attorney General Barr at the Senate Judiciary Hearing, you ran a ten minute monologue slandering a public servant who has served this country for four decades because you are unhappy with the Mueller Report.
Posted by: Mercutio || 05/03/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Hazie Morono...
Posted by: M. Murcek || 05/03/2019 5:49 Comments || Top||

#2  For "morphed into", read "is revealed as".
Posted by: charger || 05/03/2019 9:18 Comments || Top||

#3  I sincerely believe there will be a reckoning on all of this behavior on the left.

And they will be like lambs to slaughter because the leftist media keeps cooking the pinion polls.
Posted by: Sock Puppet of Doom || 05/03/2019 9:55 Comments || Top||

#4  Hirono got the "Lazy Mazie" pic-a-nic when it was "her turn" to be Governor so she phoned it in - Lost to Linda Lingle. Guess she decided to be more proactive in keeping her Senate seat and let her freak flag fly.
She does have some cancer problems so maybe her recent personalty change is the result of chemo.

Also IIRC either Sen Inoyue or Akaka married a woman named Hirono, so it may be a case of the family idiot getting out of the closet.
Posted by: Mercutio || 05/03/2019 9:59 Comments || Top||

#5  Re: #3: Puppet - don't count on Hawaii following that path. The gov't is a wholly-owned subsidiary of HGEA - Hawai'i Government Employees Association. There is 1 Trunk in the state senate and damn few in the House. Not likely to change
Posted by: Marilyn Clitch6402 || 05/03/2019 10:03 Comments || Top||

#6  This woman's train is completely off the rails.
Posted by: JohnQC || 05/03/2019 11:44 Comments || Top||



Who's in the News
37[untagged]
6Taliban
4Commies
4Govt of Pakistan
4Islamic State
2Sublime Porte
2Hezbollah
2Govt of Sudan
1Palestinian Authority
1Tin Hat Dictators, Presidents for Life,
1al-Qaeda
1Arab Spring
1Govt of Iran
1Hamas
1Haqqani Network
1Houthis
1Moslem Colonists

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Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.

Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has dominated Mexico for six years.
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Meet the Mods
In no particular order...
Steve White
Seafarious
tu3031
badanov
sherry
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trailing wife
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Two weeks of WOT
Fri 2019-05-03
  Taliban militants blow up one of the oldest shrines of Ghazni city
Thu 2019-05-02
  Iran, Turkey criticize US plan to designate Muslim Brotherhood a terror group
Wed 2019-05-01
  Egypt: Muslim Brotherhood-affiliated businessman Malek sentenced to 25 years in prison
Tue 2019-04-30
  Gunmen kill pastor, worshippers in Burkina Faso church
Mon 2019-04-29
  Isis leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi seen in new video for first time in five years
Sun 2019-04-28
  Father, brothers of alleged Sri Lanka bombing mastermind killed
Sat 2019-04-27
  Sri Lanka - Inside help?
Fri 2019-04-26
  Jihadists 'blow themselves up' as soldiers raid suicide vest factory in Sri Lanka
Thu 2019-04-25
  Trump says sending ‘armed soldiers’ to US-Mexico border
Wed 2019-04-24
  Saudi Arabia beheads 37 for terrorism crimes, most of them minority Shiites
Tue 2019-04-23
  IS claims Sri Lanka blasts
Mon 2019-04-22
  Sri Lanka explosions, 24 arrested, 290+ dead, 8 kabooms
Sun 2019-04-21
  3 churches bombed at Easter services in Sri Lanka 262 Dead
Sat 2019-04-20
  Woman killed after shots fired during violent riots in Londonderry, Northern Ireland
Fri 2019-04-19
  Islamic State Declared A New Wilaya In Africa

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